Design in Nature : Learning from Trees

Claus Mattheck

ISBN 10: 3540629378 / ISBN 13: 9783540629375

Published by Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 1998

About this Item

Druck auf Anfrage Neuware - Printed after ordering - The chicken bone you nibbled yesterday and threw away was a high-tech product! Not only that: it was a superlative light-weight design, functionally adapted to its mechanical requirements. No engineer in the world has, as yet, been able to copy this structural member, which is excellently optimized in its external shape and its internal architecture as regards minimum weight and maximum strength. The tree stem on which you recently carved your initials has also, by life-long care for its body, steadily improved its internal and external structure and adapted optimally to new loads. In the course of its biomechanical self-optimization it will heal up the notch you cut as speedily as possible, in order to repair even the smallest weak point, which might otherwise cost it its life in the next storm. This book is dedicated to the understanding of this biomechanical optimization of shape. It is the synthesis of many years of extensive research using the latest computer methods at the Karlsruhe Research Centre to help understand the mechanism of biological self-optimization (adaptive growth) and to simulate it by computer. The method newly developed for this purpose was called CAO (Computer-Aided Optimization). With this method, it is possible to predict the growth of trees, bones and other biological structures from the tiger's claw to the sea urchin's skeleton.

Seller Inventory # 9783540629375

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Design in Nature : Learning from Trees
• Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
• Publication Date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3540629378
• ISBN 13: 9783540629375
• Binding: Taschenbuch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 235W x 155H x 19D millimeters 235 millimeters width by 155 millimeters height by 19 millimeters depth
• Weight: 500 grams

About this title

Synopsis

This book describes and verifies external shape laws in nature, not only valid for trees, but also for bones, claws, thorns, etc. It is shown how growing structures repair the disturbed optimum design after wounding and damage has occured. Computer simulation of these load-adaptive growths is used to find an ecological engineering design, characterized by minimum weight and maximum strength. The optimization procedure is already widely used in industry and many technical examples are given.

About the Author

Born in Dresden, Germany in 1947. Study of physics in Dresden, Phd in theoretical physics in 1973. Habilitation in the field of damage control in 1985. Lectures on biomechanics at the University of Kalrsruhe. Head of the Department of Biomechanics of the Research Centre in Karlsruhe. Several awards in science and literature, 2003  Germany's environmental achievement award (Deutscher Umweltpreis).